I wrote the news today
In a 10 out south the midway rise1
And as my money flew
Singing to the pockets2 you
Could only know your shame3
Knowing what the good ones4 do
And when you see the bruises on my legs from kicking pills,5 yeah
Then you know how recklessly the pages they are filthy6

Want to be upside down
Maybe thrown from side to side8
Once you fall from the sky
Sinning like a sheep at sea9
Want to live so out loud
A fashion police break me10
And when you see the bruises on my legs from kicking pills, yeah
Then you know how recklessly the pages they are filthy

Andrew Bird sings of filthy pages to describe how tragic and sorrowful our world has become.

“Fake headlines…come back” means that the media is not concerned with what is real. The media is primarily concerned with what generates profit. This is the central theme of this song.

In these lines, Andrew Bird hints that the things that pass as “news” make him go crazy.

These lines refer to the tragic circumstances of our world that the media must report each day.

These lines refer to the competitive attention-getting techniques that media agencies employ to market themselves to consumers.

“You’ll cry” means that is one invests too much of his life in consuming media, he will be very depressed because of all of the negativity that is consistently being reported.

“I wrote the whole front page / with the catchiest words I could find” is a line that refers to the untrue and inflated nature of most news reporting. In this song, Andrew Bird is calling out the media for scamming the public.